This invention relates to smoking systems in which cigarettes are used with lighters, and methods for making the same.
An electrical smoking article is described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,671, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. That patent describes a smoking article which is provided with a disposable set of electrical heating elements, A charge of tobacco flavor medium containing, for example, tobacco or tobacco-derived material is deposited on each of the heating elements. The disposable heater/flavor unit is mated to a source of electrical energy such as a battery or capacitor, as well as to control circuitry to actuate the heating elements in response to a puff by a smoker on the article or in response to the depression of a manual switch. The circuitry is designed so that at least one, but less than all of the heating elements are actuated for any one puff, and so that a predetermined number of puffs, each containing a pre-measured amount of tobacco flavor substance, e.g., an aerosol containing tobacco flavors or a flavored tobacco response, is delivered to the smoker. The circuitry also preferably prevents the actuation of any particular heater more than once, to prevent overheating of the tobacco flavor medium thereon.
With such articles, the heater is thrown away with the spent remainder of tobacco material. Also, the electrical connections between the heaters and the battery must be able to endure repeated release and reconnection as flavor units are replaced.
In copending, commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/666,926, filed Mar. 11, 1991, now abandoned in favor of Continuing application Ser. No. 08/012,799, filed Feb. 2, 1993, an electrical smoking article is disclosed that has reusable heating elements and a disposable portion for tobacco flavor generation. The disposable portion preferably includes a flavor segment and a filter segment, attached by a tipping paper or other fastening arrangement. Certain operational difficulties are, however, associated with reusable heating elements, particularly in that residual aerosol tends to settle and condense on the heating elements and other permanent structural components of the article.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/943,504, filed Sep. 11, 1992, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, describes another electrical smoking article that has reusable heating elements and a disposable portion for tobacco flavor generation. That application addresses problems relating to the long-term use of heating elements and other permanent structural components of the article. That application also describes a manufacturing process for making the disposable portion of the smoking article using conventional high-volume assembly machinery. More specifically, that application describes a disposable tobacco flavor unit having a "tube-in-tube" construction, wherein tobacco flavor material positioned on a carrier and formed into a cylinder around free-flow, back-flow, and mouthpiece filters is disposed within an aerosol barrier tube. Heater elements are placed between the aerosol barrier tube and the tobacco flavor unit to heat the tobacco flavor unit. The aerosol barrier tube prevents aerosols formed during heating of the tobacco flavor unit and the heaters from condensing on permanent portions of the electrical smoking article. That application also describes the use of phosphorous doped silicon heater elements having the ability to cycle to temperatures of between 200.degree. C. and 900.degree. C. and deliver between 5 and 40 Joules of energy repeatedly without failure.
In light of the above, it is therefore desirable to be able to provide an improved smoking system in which the heating elements of the lighter are reusable.
It is also desirable to be able to provide such a system in which condensation of aerosol onto the heating elements and other structural components of the lighter is minimized.
It is further desirable to provide a smoking article which is easier to manufacture.
It is still further desirable to provide a smoking article which provides improved flavor delivery to the smoker.